Topic: Some news for the brothers to a step backPosted By: asheque
Subject: Some news for the brothers to a step back
Date Posted: 25 February 2012 at 8:25pm

1.An Israeli military court has
sentenced the leader of a West
Bank protest movement to a year
in prison for incitement and
organizing illegal demonstrations
amid criticism from the European
Union and human rights
organizations that the conviction
was politically motivated.

2 Palestinian
activist Abdallah Abu
Rahmah, 39, was convicted in
August for his involvement in
organizing weekly protests
against the route of what Israel
calls its security barrier and what
Palestinians call an apartheid
separation wall. In a statement
released at the time, the Israeli
military said Abu Rahmah "was
convicted of incitement and
participation in an illegal riot."

3.Speaking
before the sentencing,
Abu Rahmah rejected the Israeli
charges and vowed to continue
his protest activities.
"We want to continue our struggle.
We want to continue to have our
rights until we will have freedom
and independence to remove the
wall, to remove the settlements, to
remove all of these things and this
illegal wall and arresting the
people, and we will not stop
because this is our right, this is our
land. We must continue this until
we have freedom."

4. we have
freedom."
Abu Rahmah already has spent 10
months in an Israeli military
prison. Under the terms of the
sentencing, he is expected to be
released within 40 days.
International rights group Human
Rights Watch said that Abu
Rahmah's detention and trial
raised serious concerns about
violations of due process and that
the sentence "essentially
criminalizes peaceful expression
by Palestinians protesting the de
facto confiscation of their land,"
The case has attracted widespread
attention. Upon Abu Rahmah's
conviction, Catherine Ashton, the
European Union's foreign policy
chief, released a statement saying
the EU viewed him as a "human
rights defender" and expressing
concern that his imprisonment
might be "intended to prevent him
and other Palestinians from
exercising their legitimate right to
protest against the existence of
the separation barriers in a
nonviolent manner."

5 Hundreds
participate in the
popular campaign against the wall
every week. Protests in the West
Bank village of Bil'in started five
and a half years ago.
Residents say the wall cuts them
off from their farmland and is a
land grab. Israel
says it needs the
barrier for security.
The Israeli supreme court
originally ruled in September 2007
that part of the fence near the
West Bank village
of Bil'in was
illegal and needed to be moved to
give residents some of their
farmland back. The Israel Defense
Force told CNN the work to move
the fence started in February
2010, but residents say none of
the fence has been moved.
Charges against Abu Rahmah of
throwing stones during the
demonstrations were dropped.
Abu Rahmah had collected tear gas
canisters and weapons Israel
used
against the demonstrators, and
made an exhibition of them in his
garden. The Israeli military then
charged him with weapons
possession, a charge the court also
threw out

. 6. Organizers, backed by Prime
Minister Salam Fayyad, say
nonviolence is their best weapon
to increase international pressure
on Israel
to end its occupation. But
some Palestinian youths throw
stones at the Israeli military during
the protests, and the military fires
stun grenades, tear gas canisters,
rubber bullets and, sometimes, live
rounds.
Both the military and the youths
have been blamed for instigating
the violence.
Organizers of the movement say
they are unable to control youths
who use their protests to throw
stones.
Six protesters have been killed in
Bil'in and the neighboring village
of Nilin in the past 18
months, and
hundreds have been injured,
according to protest organizers.
Israel
says hundreds of its military
personnel have been injured by
stones.
Protest movement organizer
Jonathan Pollock said the Israeli
military was trying to make an
example of Abu Rahmah to
prevent others from
demonstrating, but he said the
tactic would not work.
"Hundreds and hundreds of
arrests in the past year have not
stopped demonstrations, and
sentencing of a single person is
not going to affect a movement."